ropajation of 
the Dahlia 

A Bolles 'Dahlia Booklet 



Propagation of the Dahlia 



by 



CHARLTON BURGESS BOLLES 
Media, Pennsylvania 

Member The American Dahlia Society 
and The California Dahlia Society 



Copyright, 1922, By Charlton Burgess Bolles 






A List of the 

Bolles Dahlia Booklets 

1 HISTORY OF THE DAHLIA 

2 WHY GROW DAHLIAS? 

3 PROPAGATION OF THE DAHLIA 

4 CULTIVATION OF THE DAHLIA 

5 DAHLIA GROWING COMMERCIALLY 

6 FERTILIZERS AND LARGE BLOOMS 

7 THE ENEMIES AND PESTS OF DAHLIAS 

8 THE HARVESTING AND STORAGE OF DAHLIAS 

Price Thirty-five Cents per copy 

(3 and 4 are Double numbers, Price 50c per copy) 

Address orders to 

CHARLTON B. BOLLES 

Media, Penn. 



C1A678334 



JUN 1 9 15522 



<VV 



Propagation of the Dahlia 

PROPAGATION of dahlias is usually by tubers, 
the "divisions" being planted like potatoes. Gut- 
tings of new sprouts, and the succulent tips of 
branches, is the method practically exclusively used in 
England, and is employed in America by florists and 
growers of exhibition blooms to increase costly varieties, 
and to produce magnificent blooms, it being agreed that 
suitable cuttings produce better flowers than plants 
that are grown from tubers. Planting seeds is the third 
and only other method. Seedlings resemble parents 
very little, and nearly ninety-nine of every hundred are 
worthless, or at least are no improvement upon existing 
varieties. This method of propagation is employed to 
secure new and better varieties. While the prizes are 
comparatively few the work is fascinating, and the 
amazing glories of the present-day dahlia world are the 
results. There is no reason why more wonderful 
flowers should not be created. Only seeds from fine 
varieties should be planted. It is not worth while 
filling garden space with plants most of which are sure 
to be worthless unless there is a probability of some 
pleasing results, and the finer the parents are the greater 
is the likelihood of an occasional prize. Packets of seed 
from choice varieties, the result of hand-pollenation, 
may be bought for one to three dollars a packet, with 



PROPAGATION 



three new packets offered in 1922 at ten dollars each, 
and another packet at twenty-five dollars. 

Almost every dahlia catalog uses the word bulb. 
Dahlia tubers are not tubers — botanically; neither are 
they bulbs. A bulb is a more or less thick fleshy, 
usually underground bud, and generally has roots from 
the under side. The bulb's mission in life is to carry the 
plant's life over a bad season, or through a winter. 
Bulbs are always in scales or layers, like an onion, or 
with scales as is the case with lily bulbs. The bulb is 
the plant's storehouse, and after the plant flowers 
within the bulb new stems form, leaves and flowers. 
The bulb actually contains a new plant, which is pro- 
tected and kept alive by the reserve food and energy 
collected in the bulb during one season's growth, for 
the plant's successor. 

The bulb is the plant's last will and testament; is 
the plant's soul, transmigrating, but to appear in the 
same form as before. The plant above ground dies, 
the roots below ground likewise die; the bulb hiber- 
nates, goes to sleep like a bear, and in this dormant 
state can be stored, shipped easily across oceans if need 
be. Planted properly in due time it awakes, never 
realizes that it has left its happy home, the embryonic 
plant develops luxuriantly and with the same per- 
fection and beauty as its parent. The dahlia "tuber" 
is a fleshy, tuberous root. Unlike the white and sweet 
potato, there are no eyes (buds) in the fleshy root itself, 



OF THE DAHLIA 



It is simply a storage place for water and plant food for 
the next year's plant. The buds are on the crown, the 
point of union of the "neck" of the dahlia root with the 
main stalk of the plant. Buds are also here and there 
upon the surface of the stalk, where they are likely to 
dry out and die during winter storage. Hence the great 
importance of not "breaking necks" when digging 
dahlia roots. A broken neck soon dries at the point of 
injury, cutting off the moisture supply contained in the 
enlarged root ("tuber" so-called) from the bud at the 
junction of neck and stalk. The woody stalk evaporates 
its moisture during storage, and the bud dies as a 
natural sequence. The broken-necked "tuber" re- 
tains most of its plumpness. If planted a network of 
white roots will be put out, but there can be no sprouts, 
for sprouts are developed buds, and the tuber-like root 
mass has no bud. It will do its level best to fulfil its 
mission in life, but it is as unproductive as a fossil. In 
dividing a field clump it is absolutely necessary that 
part of last season's base, or stem, goes with the neck of 
each tuber. Each "division" as commercial growers 
call the fleshy roots, must have at least one healthy bud 
attached to it. 

Propagation (multiplication) by the "division" of 
tubers from field clumps is the commonest method of 
increasing dahlias in America. In England one never 
sees tubers for sale, only the "green plants." There 
are nearly, perhaps quite, five hundred growers and 



PROPAGATION 



dealers of dahlias in this country, and their catalogs 
usually offer tubers only. The commercial grower 
commences to divide his clumps as early as late January 
if he has large stocks, storing the separated tubers in 
closed boxes to prevent rapid drying from the cut 
surfaces. The amateur waits until nearly planting time, 
to avoid several handlings, and to delay cutting as long 
as possible, the tubers naturally keeping better in the 
clump. 

Making divisions is not easy, and carelessness will 
certainly result in loss through the destruction of the 
buds ("eyes"). Thoughtful care must be exercised, 
and a few suitable tools provided. A short butcher's 
knife and a hammer to sometimes help the blade 
through the toughest, fleshiest parts, will answer the 
amateur very well. With some hundreds of clumps to 
divide additional equipment of saw, chisel and mallet 
will be found almost necessary for time saving, as puz- 
zling combinations of roots are encountered. The 
curved blade of the family grape fruit knife will some- 
times cut through otherwise inaccessible inner masses 
of fleshy roots, between tubers. A punctiliously prompt 
replacement of this borrowed knife in case of accident 
is strongly recommended. 

A hack-saw with several spare blades is well worth 
having handy, and is better than the butcher's fine 
toothed saw. 



OF THE DAHLIA 



A block of wood six inches square and four to six 
inches high is almost indispensable. A six inch length 
of a two by three beam would answer about as well. A 
support for an edge of the clump is afforded by the 
angles of the block, and prevents smashing of tubers 
and breaking of necks which would follow if the clump 
was laid on the flat workbench and there received the 
force of the cutting tool. 

Clumps often present an unpromising exterior 
making it difficult to decide where the first division 
should be started. The only rule is that observed by 
wise parents in child training. Take the trail that 
looks most likely and follow it, and when the trail 
divides, again take the most likely looking one. Ama- 
teurs usually can wait until about planting time, when 
the clumps can be sprinkled, provided with a little 
warmth, or set in moist earth, moss, or sand. Half 
inch sprouts will soon appear and decidedly help to 
determine where the division cuts should be made. 

The storage period being over and planting at 
hand wounds upon the fleshy bulk of the tubers are of 
small moment, but great pains should be taken that 
necks are not damaged, and most of all that the "crown" 
or enlarged head of the neck, where it joins the main 
stalk of the plant, is not injured. Dahlia tubers unlike 
white or sweet potatoes have no eyes although oc- 
casionally one tuber in ten thousand will be found with 
an eye. Breeding dahlias with fine healthy eyes dotted 



PROPAGATION 



over the tuber mass, as with the potato, so that the 
tuber could be cut into pieces, as the potato is in plant- 
ing, and multiplied half a dozen times, would seem to be 
indicated as a nice problem for the enthusiastic creator 
of new varieties. But until this happy result is ob- 
tained it is imperative that the eye in the crown end of 
the tuber's neck be not only uninjured when making 
divisions, but that a neat little piece of the main stalk 
be cut off with it. If the beginner has never divided 
field clumps he might start upon his least valuable 
varieties. After dividing half a dozen clumps he will 
have confidence. Better still, ask a friendly neighbor 
who has had more experience to cut several clumps for 
you. Watch his every motion and you will soon be able 
to do it yourself, particularly so if you have a good tool 
equipment, for an inch chisel is sometimes a very present 
help, and will save you a broken knife blade. 

One tuber to an eye is all that is needed, but some- 
times the necks of two tubers join at the same point on 
the stalk. The smaller of the two can be discarded, or 
the stalk so cut as to preserve both roots, which should 
be planted as one. 

Small tubers are quite as likely to be excellent as 
as larger ones. Some varieties produce small roots. 
Madame Marze, and some other gigantic flowering sorts 
grow very large tubers. The strength and vigor of the 
sprout is the only thing that matters. Some growers 
maintain that with any variety the medium and small- 



OF THE DAHLIA 



sized tubers often produce the finest and most bril- 
liantly colored flowers. 

Tubers two and three years old are often very 
large, sometimes weighing two or more pounds. At 
least two thirds, even three-fourths, should be cut off 
and thrown away when planting. New roots and new 
tubers normally start at the base of the sprout. But 
with these old "grandfathers" a good many roots start 
from the end of the tuber farthest away from the 
sprout. Much of the plant food gathered by these 
roots is absorbed by the fat old tuber, which grows 
larger and larger, finally weighing several pounds after 
a few years, and more or less hollow, like a squash. The 
so-needful new roots at the base of the sprout are 
greatly discouraged and make only a partial growth. A 
poor plant with few blooms is quite likely to be all the 
gardener has for his pains, with a few, undeveloped tubers 
at harvest time, instead of sturdy reduplication, 
thirteen-fold, which is the normal average yield of fine 
plants. 

Presumably it is about planting time when you 
divide your clumps. But if by reason of inclement weather 
or other unexpected sidetracking of opportunity you 
cannot plant the tubers immediately after divsion see 
that they do not dry out. Cover them carefully in 
boxes and they will keep a fortnight; the cooler they 
are the better. If when divided, or at planting time, 
sprouts more than an inch long are found they should 



10 PROPAGATION 

be cut off quarter of an inch from the crown. Invariably 
a stronger and better sprout will follow. The tubers are 
planted six inches deep in the garden, upon the side, 
flat not vertically, sprout uppermost; two feet to thirty 
inches or more apart in the row, the rows four feet or 
five apart, all according to the variety, and the amount 
of land at one's disposal. The more room the plants 
have the better the blooms, for they are rank growers, 
gross feeders, and need ample space for roots, branches, 
and the access of the needful and invigorating flow of 
air and sunshine. Cultivation is of far greater impor- 
tance than fertilizing, and both of these factors are 
treated at great length in the chapters respectively 
devoted to them. 

The first step in dividing the clump is to tap the 
hard, woody stem and jar off as much of the dried 
earth as possible. The wood-like stem is then laid on 
the block and the stem chopped off with one blow of a 
hatchet as close to the tubers as seems safe. Some 
stems remain moist all winter for two or three inches 
above the roots. Gut off the dry inert top, but leave 
all of the green stem, which usually has one or more 
eyes. Very large stems had better be sawed off, a fine- 
toothed butcher's bone saw being used, if obtainable. 
This saw will be found exceedingly helpful in separating 
massive clumps into several parts for more convenient 
subdividing. 



OF THE DAHLIA 11 

Sometimes the chisel can be used to split vertically 
downwards through the hard stalk several times, the 
clump being supported on some part of the block in 
such a way as to prevent damage to individual tubers. 
In this manner v-shaped portions of the stem can be 
removed with the tubers, affording a generous amount 
of stem with each crown neck-end, ensuring an un- 
damaged eye from which a fine sprout can start. Where 
splitting this way is impossible the tools must be so 
manipulated that some piece of main stalk or mass is 
cut or gouged off and left attached to the crown. The 
crown must always have some surrounding tissue 
detached with it. Otherwise the bud may be damaged, 
or not be included at all, and the tuber "go blind," 
that is be without a bud. 

Multiplication by cuttings is the second method of 
increasing dahlias. The finest exhibition flowers are 
borne by plants derived from cuttings. If you do not 
possess a greenhouse, a cold frame, or a sunny home 
window, and cannot manage proper light, warmth, 
shade, and fresh air, why not make friends with some 
florist or private greenhouse owner. It should be easy 
to arrange for the handling of a few dozen cuttings more 
or less. The "green plants" listed in some dahlia cata- 
logs are cuttings, and may be excellent. On the other 
hand propagation by cuttings is sometimes carried so 
far, considerations of profit being the chief motive, that 
many of the green plants are weak and good for nothing. 



12 PROPAGATION 

Fifty plants from a clump of tubers is about or quite 
the limit of safety. After that number has been secured 
the production of vigorous plants is very uncertain. It 
will always be safer for the amateur to buy tubers 
rather than of green plants. "Green plants" offered 
by growers who have glass can be superior to tuber 
grown plants, but human nature sometimes falls into the 
sin of carrying multiplication by cuttings too far, "for 
revenue only." 

Green plants have this advantage: transplanted 
from the middle of June to July first they only make 
moderate growth by the time the hottest weather ar- 
rives; they are then still young and vigorous, in prime 
condition to maintain themselves against the heat and 
dryness so hurtful to dahlias. The gardener's good 
judgment in the use of water, if any be needed; and 
constant cultivation will carry such plants safely into 
September, when blooming will begin, and if the 
flowers are desired for exhibition they will be produced 
at exactly the right time by plants that in are perfect 
condition. 

Dahlias may be grown almost exclusively from 
cuttings at the beginning of a commercial growing 
enterprise, to gain as much planting stock as possible, 
in the least costly way. Amateurs also multiply plants 
from expensive tubers. Many new varieties are offered 
by commercial growers in their catalogs as "green plants 
only," the financial returns being better than if the 
limited stock of tubers was sold by the single root. 




-^2. 



Frau van Dor Zyphen 



OF THE DAHLIA 13 

Propagation by cuttings is comparatively easy if 
one has a good cold frame, or a greenhouse. The field 
clump is taken from storage in February or March, and 
covered with sifted humus-filled earth, or with leaf 
mould, or sand, or even spagnum moss, or peat. Any 
medium that will hold moisture is suitable, and at first 
should be slightly damp but not wet, lest fungus and rot 
form. Air temperature of from 60 to 65 degrees is just 
right. As soon as the eyes start to sprout water may be 
liberally applied, in order that the sprout growth may be 
rapid and vigorous. 

Glean, moist sand is best for rooting the cuttings. 
The amateur with only a few dozen cuttings can sterilize 
any doubtful sand by baking it an hour in the kitchen 
oven. 

The sprouts are ready when they have three (or 
even but two) sets of leaves. When only a few cuttings 
are needed, or the supply of field clumps of a given 
variety is ample it is an excellent plan to cut out the 
"heel" with the sprout — a little bit of the stalk where 
the sprout starts. A new plant is a greater certainty 
this way. But if many plants are needed from a limited 
supply of tubers a maximum of fifty vigorous plants may 
be obtained from a single clump of roots. Some 
growers boast that they can multiply a single tuber 
into five hundred plants, by cutting cuttings from 
cuttings. But experts claim that the plants will be 
weak and inferior. 



14 PROPAGATION 

To obtain as many plants as is safely practicable, 
the cutting is taken from the sprout with a sharp knife 
immediately below the set of leaves next the tuber. 
This will leave a stub on the root from the base of which 
new sprouts can start unharmed. If the cuttings are 
for plants to be used for growing exhibition flowers the 
wise grower discards the first shoot, fat and stocky and 
promising though it be, as better plants and better 
flowers come from the sprouts that follow the first ones. 
On either side of the stub left on the tuber two other 
smaller shoots will in due time appear, and should be cut 
for rooting when the requisite number of sets of leaves 
have formed. It is important that a sharp knife be 
used, and that the cut be close to but not through the 
joint formed by the first set of leaves. If the cut is 
made too far below the joint formed by the leaves one 
of two unpleasant results is apt to follow. Though 
your plant may be vigorous, only a small mass of fibrous 
roots will be formed, but no good tubers to carry over 
the winter. Or a clump of tubers may be produced that 
will not produce eyes the following spring. "Fibre 
cutting" is the name the experts give to the handling 
that has so disappointing an ending. 

Having made the cuttings properly the lowest pair 
of leaves should be trimmed off close to the stem, and the 
stem buried in sand nearly up to the second pair of 
leaves. A bottom heat of 70 degrees should be pro- 
vided if possible. The amateur could do this on top of 



OF THE DAHLIA 15 

a hot water radiator regulating the heat by the radiator 
valves, and more or less insulation under his boxes. A 
good thermometer should be employed. 

After the cuttings are carefully and firmly set, the 
joint where the first set of leaves was trimmed off being 
level with the sand, water moderately using a fine spray 
and spraying the cuttings at least daily, twice a day if 
needful, to prevent wilting. Keep the sand moist, but 
not wet. Provide ample ventilation, but no draughts. 
The stagnant air of a close house or room would mean 
failure. Be sure that there is abundance of fresh air, 
whether house or cold frame. If the air is dead, and 
either too dry or excessively moist, many of the cuttings 
will fail to root. 

Shade the cuttings from direct sunlight. In about 
three weeks the cuttings will have started tiny hair-like 
roots, and should then be transferred to flats, or to three- 
inch paper or clay pots. During the three weeks the 
cuttings are starting rootlets the stubs of the sprouts 
left on the tubers will each make two side shoots, to be 
cut off in due time, and rooted. And so on, until the 
limit in the vigor of the tuber sprouts has been reached. 

In transferring the delicately rooted cuttings from 
their rooting bed to boxes, or preferably into three-inch 
pots, the fullest measure of success will be attained by 
using a compost, six parts excellent fibrous loam, two 
parts thoroughly rotted horse or cow manure, two parts 
sifted leaf -mould, one part coarse sand, 



16 PROPAGATION 

" Plants raised from cuttings are pretty sure to pro- 
duce better blooms than those grown from planted 
tubers. But, and this is only one of the many things 
that tend to take the joy out of gardening, such plants 
will sometimes fail to produce good tubers. Where one 
multiplies a variety into many plants by cuttings a few 
disappointments like this ought to be bearable. 

Expensive varieties may be additionally propagated 
by cuttings in the late summer, or early autumn, "pot- 
roots" as they are called in England being grown; and 
stored in their pots in the root cellar over winter. The 
following spring they will make just as good plants as 
tubers many times as large, and the plants will produce 
excellent blooms and tubers. 

One grower claims entire success in increasing 
stocks of exceptionally fine sorts by his cuttings from 
large plants in August and September. These autumn 
cuttings are selected from side branches, but not from 
those bearing flower buds. Tips of twigs and branches 
are cut with four sets of leaves. The knife must be 
sharp, and the cut made just below the second set of 
leaves from the tip, the two leaves nearest the cut 
trimmed close to the stem, to reduce evaporation of 
moisture from the tiny fragment of a plant, which is 
now entering upon a struggle for survival. Each cut- 
ting is placed in a two inch flower pot filled with sand 
and leaf -mould in equal parts, very finely sifted and 
thoroughlyjnixed. Or they may be placed rather closely 



OFTHEDAHLIA 17 

in boxes, and after well rooted transferred to three 
inch pots. Keep the cuttings cool and shaded from the 
start. Under these conditions they will, after rooting. 
rapidly make "pot-roots" (small tubers nearly as large 
as peanuts). As autumn draws to a close let the plants 
finish their growth naturally. Do not allow the pots to 
freeze, and store until spring in the pots. Transplant 
in the spring, shaking out the ball of earth, treating 
carefully as a single plant, without disturbing the roots. 

In making autumn cuttings from mature plants it 
is important to choose stock that is vigorous and healthy 
and the branch tips selected must be succulent enough 
to snap through, like a "snap bean" when bent at 
right angles. If the green growth bends and crushes, 
but does not break off it is too old for rooting. 

Mid-summer and autumn cutting making is not a 
new idea. Sayers wrote in his "Treatise on the Dahlia," 
Boston, 1839, "Another, and I think the best, method 
of managing the dahlia, is to grow plants from cuttings 
in pots, in summer, to preserve them during the winter. 
In this method there is an advantage of removing the 
roots in an easy and speedy manner; an advantage is 
also gained of protecting them late in the fall from frost 
and other causes of injury, as the pots can readily be 
placed in a frame or other convenient place for pro- 
tection. Mr. Samuel Sweetser of Gambridgeport, 
Mass., manages dahlias in this manner to excellent 
purpose: the plants are grown in moderate sized pots, 



18 PROPAGATION 

which are taken into the greenhouse in the fall and 
placed away in a convenient place. If the earth about 
them is too moist they are placed in a dry place, and not 
removed until they are thoroughly dried, when they are 
placed away under the stage of a greenhouse, on shelves, 
or other places, until they are desired to be started into 
growth, when a little of the top soil may be taken from 
the pots and the pots plunged into a frame or other 
place to vegetate." 

Propagation by planting seeds is the third and only 
other method of increasing dahlias. Growing seedlings 
is simple, and can be done by any one. Seeds sown in 
greenhouse, cold frame, or in a home window will pro- 
duce plants, blooms, and large tubers by the end of 
autumn. In regions where the growing season is long, 
where sweet corn may be planted May tenth, sow the 
seeds early in April. Earlier planting means plants so 
large by transplanting time that they are hard to handle. 
Where summers are very short seeds may be started in 
late February. In California seeds may be sown in the 
garden itself April first, and blooms secured in August. 
If one part formalin to fifty of water be used, two quarts 
of this weak solution to every square foot of soil before 
sowing the seeds, damping-off fungi will be lessened, 
perhaps entirely killed. The solution is also somewhat 
beneficial in stimulating the growth of the seedlings. 

Sow the seeds about an inch apart in good soil that 
has been sifted, and to which a third of sand has been 



OFTHEDAHLIA 19 

added. After the soil has been well mixed with the 
sand (sifting together two or three times will accomplish 
this), and nicely leveled, the very best thing to firm it 
is a brick, which should be placed here and there upon 
the surface and tapped with a wooden mallet, or a short 
piece of wood. Do not consolidate the soil too much, 
settling it half an inch or less. Tapping the brick with 
a hammer will crack it clean in two. After sand has 
been sifted upon the seed the brick can be used again, 
and tapping with the closed fist will answer this time. 

Sift sand over the seeds until they are covered a 
quarter or even a half of an inch. The seeds sprout 
vigorously, and unless thus well covered will push 
themselves entirely out of the light soil, dry, and die. 
Water thoroughly when sown, using a very fine sprinkler, 
a spray, or a piece of cloth trailing over the sand, 
hanging out of the watering can, to prevent the sand 
being washed into heaps, uncovering the seeds Do not 
water again for a week, and if the boxes are kept cool 
enough they will remain moist enough. Watch, them, 
however. If they become too dry the sensitive sprouts 
just emerging from the seeds will suffer, perhaps die. 

Cover with boards, paper, or if flats (boxes) are 
used lay sheets of glass over the boxes, to reduce evapo- 
ration. Uncover when the seeds are up and protect 
somewhat from strong light for a few days. White 
paper or cheesecloth, hung before the window, or over 
cold frame glass will suffice. If boxes are used they can 



30 PROPAGATION 

be kept out of the way, in the dark, until the seeds 
germinate, not failing, however, to bring to the moder- 
ate light when they begin to sprout. Keep the boxes in 
a cool place until germination takes place, for the more 
slowly they start the better the plants. Quick sprout- 
ing means leggy, delicate young plants. A temperature 
of sixty to sixty-five degrees, Fahrenheit, is just right 
both for germination and for growing. 

Some of the seeds will be slow in coming up. 
Watch them. If any are six weeks in sprouting take par- 
ticular note and care of such, for the finest and most 
worthwhile flowers as to color and form are likely to 
come from these late starting seeds. Some experienced 
growers deny this, claiming that dahlia seedlings are a 
law unto themselves (which merely means that their 
human friends do not understand them fully), and that 
the most beautiful and the sturdiest seedling plants and 
flowers sometimes come from the weakest and sometimes 
from the strongest sprouting seeds. This may be true 
enough, and the majority of fine flowers still be borne 
by plants from the six-weeks slow germinating seeds. 

After the seedlings are well up they should be given 
full sunshine or they will grow too slender. But keep 
them cool all the time. 

One grower had an interesting experience. A box 
containing one hundred seedlings over six inches tall 
was forgotten and left out doors one spring night. 
Frost killed every bit of foliage leaving nothing but the 




A New Seedling 




Amber Queen, a single Dahlia usually having more than eight petals 



OF THE DAHLIA 21 

stems, which also turned almost black. The box was 
carelessly tossed under a tree. The weather improved, 
in about a fortnight tiny leaf shoots appeared in the 
axils of the frost killed leaves, and the stems gradually 
became leafy again. The plants were neglected, often 
dried out in their box to almost the extinction point, 
were sometimes flung a little water, and finally were 
transplanted. They grew steadily to maturity and 
produced normal seedling blooms, and excellent tubers. 

If from all your seedlings you have two plants out 
of each hundred that are worth keeping after they have 
shown what sort of blooms they can produce you are 
doing well. One grower started with thirty thousand 
seedlings; three years afterwards he had reduced all 
these plants to exactly eleven. 

If you are a very busy person, or have not the 
facilities for "shifting" the seedlings from flats or cold 
frame to three-inch pots when two or three sets of leaves 
have formed, and later into larger pots, as the mass of 
fibrous roots seems to pretty well fill the pots, you will 
do well to plant in boxes in five inches of soil, having 
the top of the box one inch higher to make watering 
easy, and dropping the seeds two inches apart in each 
direction. In rich soil these plants, though crowded in 
the boxes, will do well, and can be transplanted directly 
into the garden after all danger of frost is past. Some 
of the little plants will have tubers as large as peanuts 
if they were started early. Set them deeply in the 



22 PROPAGATION 

garden row, six inches at least, disturbing the rootlets 
as little as possible. By watering exactly right the box 
soil can be made firm enough to be cut into squares with 
trowel, and after the first few plants have been trans- 
planted each square of earth with its plant can be lifted 
without much disturbance of roots. Use bone meal, 
and otherwise fertilize and cultivate in the garden 
exactly as for plants started from tubers. When 
blooming begins if you have experience enough with 
dahlias to give you some standards for comparison pull 
up and throw away each plant that shows itself not 
worth keeping. This will allow more space and plant 
food for the others, for at transplanting time you can set 
the seedlings as close as fifteen inches, if your garden 
space is at all limited. But if you do plant thus closely 
you must certainly thin out the undesirables as fast as 
their flowering reveals them. Where flower pots are 
not used, and they are not necessary though truly 
desirable, boxes so constructed that they can be "knock- 
ed down" will prove convenient. If also divided into 
two-inch squares, checkerboard fashion, by strips of 
wood in one direction, and two-inch pieces the otherway, 
and these pieces well oiled to discourage the clinging of 
soil, the little plants can be taken from the box in 
undisturbed cubes of earth and transplanted without 
interruption of growth. Paper flower pots could be 
used. Plot the size of your boxes so they will contain 
square "pots" of strong manila or waxed butcher's 



OF THE DAHLIA 23 

paper without loss of space. Have one side of the 
wooden box detachable by using brass (not iron) 
screws, or hooks, or pinned "knock-down" style, and the 
paper pots can be lifted out intact for transplanting. 
Use a block of wood of the pot size desired, fold the paper 
about it, fasten with a touch of paste, tube glue, or 
mucilage, to retain shape until packed in the box and 
filled with earth. Such a plan is a good one to follow 
with tomato, pepper, cabbage, and other plants started 
early in the season. The final transplanting of all 
seedlings without root disturbance is greatly to be 
desired. 

Do not make your boxes too large. A wooden box 
fifteen inches square, filled with five inches of earth is 
quite heavy, while a twenty-inch box is almost too 
heavy. When the boxes are planted in the home 
window it is desirable that they be set out of doors on 
fine days as spring advances to harden the seedlings, 
but shielded from nippy winds, of course. Convenience 
in weight and size will be much appreciated, while 
"knock-down " boxes possess the added advantage of 
storage in little space when put away until another 
spring comes round. 

After transplanting cultivate the seedlings faith- 
fully; top fertilize as flower buds appear, pinch off all 
flower buds till mid-August, for the best blooms will 
come in September. The flowers are no better the 
second year; except as the result of better treatment, 



24 PROPAGATION 

that is all. Give the seedlings the best possible care 
the first season, secure decisive blooms, throw away 
the ninety odd per cent of worthless plants, starting 
your second year with only those that promise most. 
It is absolutely futile to waste time upon inferior 
dahlias these days. 

Besides buying dahlia seed you can grow seed from 
your choicest varieties, accepting the fertilizing done 
by bees, or crossing selected flowers yourself, which is 
the self-respecting, scientific method. Cultivate the 
seed-producing plants constantly. If the soil dries out 
it means failure. Do not use the first flowers, they are 
practically worthless for seeding. Most dahlia flowers 
that have seed follow blooming will show a center just 
before fading. As the petals die, a few at a time, after 
the seed is growing, they must be pulled out. This is a 
very important matter. Go over the flowers every other 
day until not a petal is left. The pod or seed case will 
by this time be almost closed. In four or five weeks 
it should be fit to cut, but leave it on the plant until 
frost seems certain. If frost is probable any evening 
before the seed case is entirely ripe then it may be cut, 
even if ripening is not fully accomplished. Gut with a 
long stem, and place the stem in water, in a dry, airy 
place, where it is warm. Change the water and clip 
half an inch off the stem twice a week. After ten days 
hang up head downwards to dry. The seed case will 



OF THE DAHLIA 25 

commence to open. Do not disturb it until com- 
pletely dry. If then the pod has a crisp feel the seed is 
probably excellent. 

The reason for picking off the dead petals so faith- 
fully is that rain, fogs, dog days, even the heavy dews of 
autumn, will water-soak the seed husks. A rot much 
like the waxy rot of peach orchards often forms on the 
fading blooms in damp weather and will spread rapidly, 
if the dead petals, and all dead flowers are not removed. 
Garry the dead flowers away from the garden. Burn- 
ing is the safest disposition of them. 

Flowers late in pollen production are to be pre- 
ferred, but since nearly six weeks are needed for the 
growth and ripening of the seed, protection against 
frost is important. If the seeds are sappy when touched 
by frost the germ in the seeds will be killed. As a first 
frost often is not followed by another for ten or fifteen 
days completely protecting the seed bearing plants on 
very chilly nights is obviously worth while. When the 
seed pod seems nearly completely formed it can be taken 
into the house if a frost kills the plant. If the seeds are 
well developed they will ripen in the house. If un- 
developed when frost comes they will not ripen indoors, 

A perfectly full, double decorative does not seem, 
to the average amateur, as a likely prospect for either 
hand or insect fertilizing. Indeed, insect fertilization 
seldom happens. The pistils, at the base of the petals, 
are covered and hidden by each closely lapped row of 



26 PROPAGATION 

petals. Unless fertilized by hand these fine and most 
desirable flowers will not bear seed. Every other row 
of petals should be cut out with manicure scissors, ex- 
posing the forked, recurved stigmas at the base of the 
petals, upon which pollen of some flower you desire to 
make the cross from can be placed with a camel hair 
brush, or the flower can be itself used, brushing and 
shaking its pollen upon the flower from which you have 
amputated every other row of petals. Apply the pollen 
two or three times a day until the flower has opened 
fully and has completely bloomed. The flower opens 
in circles, exposing the pollen-receiving parts succes- 
sively, until at last the centre of the flower is reached, 
about five days later. 

The first few flowers that bloom upon a plant are 
not suitable for seed production. Allow the late 
blooms, say just before mid-September, to fully open. 
Clip the petals of the tight double flowers if necessary. 
To cross-fertilize selected flowers tie a paper bag (to 
exclude wind and insects) over the flower chosen as the 
mother flower at the moment the bud is nearly, but not 
yet, open. Generally speaking the mother flower 
controls color in the seedlings, and the pollen flower 
controls form and size. It is also believed by some 
that style of bush, foliage, and tuber is determined by 
the mother plant. Some experimenters insist upon 
always using a white flower to receive the pollen, 
claiming production of varying colors is better accom- 
plished thereby. 



OF THE DAHLIA 27 

Use the pollen of a large flowering variety upon a 
small variety mother flower and at least half of the off- 
spring of such a union will produce large flowers. A 
peony type flower is a good one to choose for the 
mother, being loose petalled, with a good sized open 
center. Select your color in the mother flower re- 
membering this flower will largely dominate the color 
of the seedlings. A cactus pollen parent may be em- 
ployed, if one wishes to do so. It takes about five days 
to complete the hand-pollenizing of a flower and the 
paper bag should be carefully kept upon the mother 
flower all this while, lest winds and insects bring pollen 
from other flowers, the bag being removed for the 
shortest possible moment each time the pollen is supplied 
to the successively developing pistils. When the 
petals have faded, and the pollen-receiving parts have 
increased in size the seeds have started to form, and the 
paper bag may be removed. 

The pollen-bearing flower can be cut when fully 
open and kept in a vase of water in the house, where 
wind will not remove the pollen dust. The pollen will 
increase in quantity upon the cut flower, and when 
there is abundance the flower can be carefully carried to 
the garden and rubbed, face to face, upon the mother 
flower, or the brush can be used. Very careful and 
exact seed growers first wash the face of the mother 
flower with a strong, light spray, or a hand syringe, 
lest peraventure even under the protecting bag the 
flower be self-pollenated. 



28 PROPAGATION 

Some of the seedlings of the cross-pollenated plants 
will in all probability be found to be hybrids between 
the two parents while others will be found to be exactly 
like the mother plant, showing that cross pollenation 
had not been accomplished with all of the disc florets. 
From these seedlings the hybrids are selected for the 
next year's crop and the flowers resembling the mother 
are discarded. Any desirable hybrids can be per- 
petuated indefinitely by dividing the roots. If seeds 
of the new hybrids be planted the second year, a wonder- 
ful variety will, in all probability, be the result. 

Almost all seedlings are worthless. But "what's 
natural can't be desperate." If you plan to grow seed- 
lings upon a large scale buy the very best seed obtainable 
from several remote regions, California, New England, 
and Great Britain. Change of climate, change of soil, 
excessive food, are the three prime causes of variation 
in plants. Select from the blooms of this seed only the 
most promising two or three plants out of each hundred, 
and use these flowers for mothers. Choose your pollen 
from the very finest varieties obtainable, that you 
raise from purchased tubers. You could ask neighbors 
who have costly and exceptional sorts to cooperate 
with you to the extent of donating pollen bearing 
flowers, and you could return the favor with some of the 
seeds of which their flowers are the pollen parents. You 
start your career, therefore, as a grower of seedlings, 
by buying the best possible seed, and only the best; and 



OF THE DAHLIA 29 

a few tubers of exceptionally fine and established sorts. 
When autumn ends you should have some seeds that 
may prove worth while. 

Having crossed your first seedling generation with 
the finest dahlias obtainable perhaps you will be one of 
the fortunate people, and have a new variety in your 
second generation that is worth naming and introducing 
to the gorgeous dahlia world that is already in good and 
regular standing. But to be sure of this you must grow 
your second generation two years to test its permanent 
or "fixed" character. Four years have now elapsed. 
You should grow your child a fifth year, and at least one 
thousand miles from its birthplace. Complete change 
of climate is the ultimate and acid test. If your seed- 
ling holds its color and form and other good qualitites a 
long way from home you have a treasure indeed. Not a 
few eastern amateurs complain of the poor showing made 
by some of the expensive tubers bought in California. 
The California growers undoubtedly receive some very 
uncomplimentary letters from the Atlantic and Eastern 
States. What probably happens is that California 
bred dahlias, apparently "fixed" and stable enough in 
their native soil and climate, show unpleasant and back- 
ward variation when transported three thousand miles 
and given soil, atmosphere, temperature, in com- 
binations unfamiliar and, to them, not exactly suitable. 
These far-travelled varieties often recover wonderfully 
the second or third year, and adapt themselves to their 
new environment with true American flexibility. 



30 PROPAGATION 

The enthusiastic and hopeful grower of seedlings 
keeps on, each spring sowing more seeds, his own, and 
those purchased in distant parts. Some autumn he may 
be rewarded with a flower the fame of which will 
eventually be sounded from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 

If you believe you have a seedling of exceptional 
merit name it, and record it with the nearest horti- 
cultural society, and with the American Dahlia Society, 
1 98 Norton Street, New Haven, Conn. Cultivate your 
selected seedlings, that you believe have lasting merit, 
with the greatest care, and supply ample plant food 
judiciously, that they may show all that is in them. 
Unless well cultivated and well fertilized they may not 
fully disclose all that they are. 

In his annual address before the American Dahlia 
Society in New York, September 28, 1921, President 
Vincent said: "With its widely separated trial 
grounds, one near Storrs, Conn., and the other at 
College Park, University of Maryland, the society is 
well prepared to test any and all new varieties of 
dahlias. The expense to an originator is so small that 
we do not believe any variety ought to be put on the 
market unless passed at the trial grounds, and if the 
buying public would only buy the new varieties that 
have been passed upon by competent judges there 
would not be so many so-called wonders forced upon 
growers. The number of visitors to the trial grounds 
and the interest shown is evidence of the wide-spread 
popularity of the dahlia." 



OF THE DAHUA 31 

The planting at the Storrs, Conn., Trial Grounds 
begins June first, and the last plants submitted arrived 
July 2, in 1921 . The plants are set five feet apart each 
way. Fertilizers are well rotted cow manure, plowed in, 
and three ounces bone meal about each plant. Wood 
ashes are scattered over the entire surface twice during 
the season. No water is supplied, even during dry 
spells. Each plant is kept to one stem, the top pinched 
out to produce branching. Disbudding is not done, 
for it would interfere with the natural growth of the 
plant, and new varieties must be judged as they are. 
All the varieties are scored by the judges, of which there 
were eight in 1921, and a plant must score eighty-five 
points to be awarded the American Dahlia Society 
Certificate of Merit. The scale of points used in making 
the awards is: 

EXHIBITION COMMERCIAL 

VARIETIES VARIETIES 

Color 20 Color 25 

Stem and Foliage 25 Stem and Foliage 25 

Substance 15 Substance 25 

Form 20 Form 15 

Size 20 Size 10 

100 100 

Every dahlia grower should belong to the American 
Dahlia Society. Its Bulletins are well worth the an- 
nual membership fee, $2.00, as they contain articles, 
information, and advertisements of much interest and 
value. 



32 PROPAGATION 

Dahlias belong to the great composite family of 
flowers — the largest in the world — which includes 
asters, daisies, sunflowers, zinnias, chrysanthemums, to 
name but a few. The so-called flower that these 
different plants bear is a composite or aggregation of 
several, sometimes many, tiny flowers known as florets. 
Each seed in a sunflower head is the product of a distinct 
flower (floret — literally little flower). Each dahlia 
bloom is composed of many florets, and each floret can 
be made fertile and seed-bearing by its own pollen, or 
the pollen from any other floret on that individual 
flowerhead, as well as by pollen from a flower grown 
on a different and distant plant. 

Mid-September is the best time to hand pollenate 
because, apparently, the best and strongest efforts of the 
plant are then made. The obtaining of pollen from a 
cactus parent flower can be accomplished better at this 
time than earlier. A rather inferior cactus bloom, that 
only slowly opens fully, should be chosen, and this will 
be found on old rather than the newest growth. If 
this flower's center is poor, tending to be open, and 
promising to show yellow, pollen may be obtained from 
it, not otherwise, for the cactus dahlia does not 
readily yield pollen. The flower can be cut and kept 
indoors. When the selected mother flower is ready if 
your cactus pollen parent is of the tubular petal variety 
cut the petals back about two inches, split twenty or 
thirty of these petal-tubes and peel them open back- 



OF THE DAHLIA 33 

wards, much as a small boy does the long stem of a 
dandelion. This will expose the pollen at the base of 
the tubes, and allow you to rub the pollen surface upon 
the face of the selected mother flower. If a tubular 
petalled cactus bloom is selected for the mother flower 
the same method will have to be employed upon it. 
With cactus blooms pollen seems more abundant in 
scarlet and crimson than in orange; white blooms have 
little, and pink flowers almost none; dark maroons also 
have very little pollen. Decorative and single dahlias 
can be crossed with cactus. 

Dahlia pollen is moist, may be lumpy, and is 
perishable. Allowing the pollen parent flower to become 
fully open as a cut flower indoors saves all the increase 
of pollen as the flower ripens from day to day, and the 
vitality of the pollen is not lessened in any way. 

Experiments with the transportation of dahlia 
pollen should be tried. Pollen bearing flowers might be 
expressed or mailed a thousand miles. The U. S. 
Department of Agriculture has transported pollen for 
the breeding of citrus fruits. Some kinds of pollen 
have been sent half way round the world by mail, and 
found vital and suitable for use after the long journey. 

When the grower reaches the dignity of raising his 
own seed the obvious advantages of wide horticultural 
and botanical knowledge will become apparent. If he 
has read and studied somewhat he will know that the 
character of the whole plant is more important than the 



34 PROPAGATION 

character of any one branch or part. The more symetrical 
and uniformly well developed the plant is the greater 
is the likelihood that its seeds will transmit a majority 
of its characteristics. Just now the popular demand is 
for gigantic dahlia blooms. The breeder seeking such 
results should grow his seeds on plants that bear large 
flowers on all branches, and not select an immense bloom 
on a plant that only has inferior blooms for the rest of 
its output. The one gigantic bloom, "the only pride 
and joy" of the plant, is not likely to transmit the 
characteristics of producing large flowers. It may be a 
far larger flower than the average flowers of a plant that 
produces all its flowers about the same size, but the 
gardener should choose flowers for seed production from 
the plant all the flowers of which are nearly alike of 
good size. The potato grower knows that small po- 
tatoes from a hill where there are many potatoes, 
though small, will give him better results than the 
planting of two or three immense potatoes, when those 
two or three are the only offspring of a plant. The 
plant of many tubers is productive, and size may be 
bred into the offspring; the two or three big tubers have 
an unproductive parent, and the following generations 
will not only not be as large, but there will be few of 
them. Immense kernels of corn from a gigantic ear 
selected from the crib should not be planted. The ear 
very likely is an "only child," and each of the kernels 
in all likelihood will product a corn stalk that bears but 



OF THE DAHLIA 35 

one ear, and that a very ordinary one, not as large as 
its parent. On the other hand selecting as seed corn 
two fair ears, born on a single stalk while in the field, 
and while the characteristics of the plant as a whole 
can be noted, is likely to result in the kernels producing 
stalks that bear two ears, instead of but one. Very 
poor plants sometimes produce one or two big fruits; 
inferior dahlias sometimes show one or more large 
blooms, but the seeds of such plants are far more likely 
to reproduce the inferior average of the parent than the 
unusual quality of the accidentally large fruit, or 
flower. 

Having selected a plant of good average qualities as 
the seed bearer, the large and heavy seeds of that plant 
will generally give better results than the smaller seeds. 
The larger seeds will transmit greater uniformity of 
crop, increased vigor, often increase the earliness of the 
variety, sometimes increase size of flowers and fruits, 
and usually exhibit a greater capacity for seed produc- 
tion, which means greater flower production. 

On the other hand the grower of dahlia seeds 
should remember the curious fact that seeds when ex- 
ceedingly immature give feeble, but precocious offspring. 
Such seeds will not weigh more than two-thirds as much 
as those fully ripe. They will produce, if they live, 
more abundant but smaller blooms, occasionally 
slightly different flowers. The explanation probably 
lies in the chemical constitution and content of the 



J}6 PROPAGATION 

undeveloped seed substance. The seed has not reached 
the stability of maturity, and is more susceptible to 
stimulations, nourishments, and irritations. 

There seems to be no doubt but chemical changes 
take place in seeds. The chemical status or content at 
a given age may result in changes in the seedling plant. 
Florists have noted that old seeds produce weak plants, 
and they plant old seeds in the hope of securing new 
varieties. A writer as far back as 1858 affirms that 
while one-year old seeds of Ten-weeks Stocks yield 
single flowers, seeds four years old produce mostly 
double flowers. 

It is a general and well-known rule that nutrition 
greatly influences variability. Seeds that are nourished 
the best will probably produce more double flowers than 
will seeds produced by half -starved parents. The 
amount of useful plant food a plant has, that is, food in 
such a dissolved form that the plant can assimilate it, 
is probably the all-important factor in the growing of 
seeds from which new varieties are hoped for. 

Seeds for the breeding of striped flowers should be 
taken only from those blooms having smallest stripes 
because there is always reversion towards too broad 
stripes, and the broader the stripes of color, the less 
diversified the colors of the flower. 

In breeding for new varieties with each succeeding 
step the number of individuals must be doubled. Many 
thousands of seedlings are required to go beyond the 




Dreer's White, the finest white of its type 




Flora, a fine Hybrid-Cactus 



OF THE DAHLIA 



ordinary range of variations, and each further im- 
provement requires doubling the number of specimen 
plants. If ten thousand seedlings of the dahlia (or of 
any plant for that matter) do not give a profitable 
deviation, twenty thousand seedling descendants must 
be planted; then forty thousand of the third genera- 
tion, eighty thousand seedling descendants of this line 
will be required next, and so on. All this work, be it 
remembered, is required for the improvement of a single 
quality, a stiff, long stem, for example. Wise breeders 
try to evolve only one quality at a time. It's obvious 
that "there's a reason." 

The success of the plant breeder depends upon 
careful observation of variable forms, growing large 
numbers, in order that there may be more opportunity 
for variation; and in discovering the unusual, (often 
through accidental observation), and setting it apart. 

Plant offspring, even from seed, are the material 
continuations of the parents and consequently can be 
expected to be like them. Nevertheless "The most 
invariable thing in nature is variation." In the plant 
world as in the animal world mutilations, curious 
formations due to accidents, injuries, etc., are not 
transmissible. "Wooden legs are not inherited, though 
wooden heads are." 

As L. T. Bailey well says: "It is very important 
when selecting seeds from plants which seem to give 
promise of a new variety, to sow seeds of each plant 



38 PROPAGATION 

separately, and then make the subsequent selections 
from the most stable generation; and it is equally 
important not to trust to a single plant as a starting 
point, whenever there are several promising plants from 
which to select." And Vilmorin says: "Gross-breeding 
greatly increases the chance of wide variation but 
makes the task of fixation more difficult. " 

Visitors to a large dahlia field are quite apt to ask 
the grower how new varieties are originated, and often 
remark that they suppose new sorts are produced by 
splitting tubers of different colored flowers and "graft- 
ing" the tubers. It has to be explained to these poorly 
informed would-be horticulturists that the tubers, 
and the sprout cuttings, of any plant almost without a 
single exception in millions of specimens, "come true." 
The "grafted" split tubers would "come true," each to 
its variety, if an "eye" (bud) was preserved on each one. 
They could not possibly blend and produce a new 
variety. At State Agricultural Colleges an apple tree 
will sometimes be grafted with one hundred different 
varieties of apples as a demonstration of grafting to the 
students, and each grafted bud produces its own sort of 
apple, but there is no blending into new sorts between 
graft and graft. 

These home gardeners will also most earnestly inform 
the commercial dahlia grower that when they have plant- 
ed red and white dahlias side by side the tubers have 
"mixed" and produced flowers that were white, splashed 



OF THE DAHLIA 3U 

with red. It is well-nigh impossible to convince them 
that this is something that nature never allows, never 
could bring about. Should any of these visitors adopt 
a Japanese child it would not occur to them to expect 
that soon the little Oriental would begin to develop the 
physical characteristics of an American youngster, and 
that the American child, sitting at the same table, take 
on some of the complexion and facial features of the 
Japanese. This could not possibly occur, the two chil- 
dren could not "mix." It would be absolutely im- 
possible. 

For exactly the same reasons, it is absolutely 
impossible for one dahlia tuber to "mix" with another 
and different variety, even though they were planted in 
the same position, and the tubers and stems mingled in 
one crowded, confused, tangled mass, touching each 
other. New dahlia varieties can only come from seeds, 
when the pollen of one dahlia flower is carried by in- 
sects, wind, or by the gardener, to the flower of a 
different variety; or from "bud variation" — mu- 
tation the botanists term it, when for obscure and at 
the present state of our scientific knowledge unknown 
reasons the plant "sports" and produces a bud, and 
afterwards a flower sometimes very slightly, sometimes 
very decidedly different than all the other buds and 
flowers upon that individual plant. These sports or 
mutations are rare. Many occur in the wide realm of 
the vegetable world, with the hundreds of thousands of 



JO PROPAGATION 

different kinds of plants, in the course of the centuries 
and have beyond question played a considerable part in 
the production of varieties, but in the close range of the 
course of one short human life they can with strict 
literalness be said to be rare indeed. 

Yet the unscientific home gardener will insist, 
unconvinced, that his white dahlias did produce red 
color, while growing side by side with the red sorts, and 
that the tubers "mixed." The amateur is partly right. 
His flowers did "throw red" although they did not, 
could not, mix. Peonies and some other flowers will do 
the same thing. Red color seems to have a persistency 
in flowers that cannot always be bred out of them. The 
dahlias that revert to red tints had a red ancestor 
somewhere, perhaps far back on the family tree, and 
now soil, climate, excess or lack of food, possibly some 
physical irritation, brings to the front the stronger and 
more dominant characteristics, just as brilliant auburn 
hair will sometimes be given some children in families 
that have not been "red-headed" on either side of the 
family for some generations. But the youngster does 
not have red hair because he is growing up alongside of 
some carrot-topped son of Erin, occupying the next 
desk to him in the schoolroom. 

Again, a frail human memory may be the ex- 
planation. The tubers of red dahlias seem to winter 
better than some other sorts. The amateur puts his 
roots away as best he can in the fall, only to find that 



OFTHEDAHLtA 41 

the home cellar has been a poor storage room, and his 
tubers are about all killed, by drying out, or by rotting 
from too much moisture. He salvages a few sound 
tubers from the rubbish, and ten to one he gets red 
flowers. He is sure, oh, absolutely sure, that he saved 
some of his white dahlias, and that they have turned 
red because of the company they were in the previous 
summer. But the overwhelming evidence is that the 
lighter tinted flowers have tubers that "enjoy ill 
health," or at least that endure adverse conditions less 
sturdily than the roots that bear darker colored blooms. 
The roots of the red dahlias live through the winter, 
despite the deplorable storage treatment that causes 
sad mortality among less robust companions. 

Composite flowers have rarely been found in a 
fossil state, leading botanists to believe that they 
belong for all the largeness of the family to com- 
paratively recent times, and although the result of a 
long series of formative changes, still possess great 
variability. 

While all thefuture's rosy hopes are dependent upon 
the dahlia's variability this chameleon-like quality is 
rather disconcerting when one wishes to fix color. 
"Dilute purple," says Wilhelm Miller, "and you get 
crimson-pink. This crimson-pink has two bad faults. 
It is inclined to be laid on unevenly in patches and veins 
instead of being evenly suffused, and it is so variable in 
quantity and quality as to make it a lottery what sort 



42 PROPAGATION 

of flower one is to get. There is only one pink dahlia I 
know of (A. D. Livoni) that shows no trace of a purple 
or crimson origin. I shall not have a particle of faith in 
the stability of any other dahlia advertised as pink until 
I see it. Whenever the words "lavender" "rosy-pink" 
or "violet" appear in descriptions of dahlias one may 
feel almost certain that they refer to this treacherous 
crimson-pink. Sometimes these tints are pretty well 
fixed, as the lavender in Arabella. The variety com- 
monly known as Mme. Moreau would pass for a pink 
until brought side by side with A. D. Livoni, when the 
purplish cast of the former is evident. In "selfs" 
(flowers having but a single color), these shades are 
practically fixed and uniform, but variegated dahlias 
containing degrees of purple, crimson, rose, magenta, 
violet, lavender and pink can never be relied upon from 
descriptions. They may be any one of these shades for 
they depend upon factors in cultivation which are little 
understood and perhaps uncontrollable. Pure and 
delicate shades of pink can never be reached by such 
means. Plant food may deepen them all the way to 
purple in a single season and they are almost sure to 
revert to purple ancestors sooner or later." 

Prof. J. W. Gregg, of the University of California* 
calls the attention of dahlia growers "to the fact that 
not all of the new creations have originated from seed- 
lings, even though a great many people seem to assume 
that this has been the case. In looking back carefully 



OF TUB DAHLIA 43 

over the history of dahlia varieties it is clear that bud 
variation has been responsible for the origin of many 
valuable varieties of dahlias. Methods of propagation, 
together with variation in soil, climate conditions, and 
culture, have probably been the most important factors 
in bud variation. Bud variation in the dahlia is neither 
new nor recent. While growers continue to produce 
new and good seedlings they should, nevertheless, be on 
the lookout during the growing season for bud variations 
which are sure to be found in any sizeable collection and 
which may prove, if selected and perpetuated, most 
desirable acquisitions." 

Chrysanthemums are examples of extreme varia- 
tion. Just what causes mutability — variability — is 
not known. The one thing that we are sure of is that it 
takes place. It's the surprise that may come to you, to 
any one. There is an instance upon record with 
chrysanthemums where one variety produced a sport 
after twenty-five years of steady behaviour under 
cultivation; and what is still more curious this sport 
occurred in different localities the same season, the sport 
in each instance being identical. Another 'Mum now 
has sixteen named sports in colors of yellow, rose, 
purple, white and red. 

The marvels of nature are little comprehended. 
The root system of a wheat plant about a year old 
averages 600 yards; the root system of a full-grown 
pumpkin vine averages 15j^ miles (22,280 yards). 
Try to imagine the root mileage of a great shade tree. 



44 PROPAGATION 

Today, in this year of Grace, 1922, the dahlia is 
the most popular flower in America, and it is safe to 
predict that it will remain the most generally grown 
plant in the home gardens of the country because of 
the remarkable range of its varied beauty, and its ease of 
cultivation. 

Maurice Fuld says: "The dahlia offers more 
opportunities for the amateur than any other flower 
I know of; he can do more with it than the professional 
and invariably he has the professional all beaten to a 
standstill; he can with ease breed and cross and pro- 
duce any quantity of new dahlias all within the short 
space of one year; and to my mind this is the climax of 
joy in a garden." 

I When plants that have been under cultivation and 
observation for centuries are compared with the dahlia 
it will be realized that we stand only upon the threshold, 
historically and practically, of dahlia breeding, and 
that the possibilities may be anything. 

There are many encouragements for the would-be 
creator of new and worth-while dahlias. Here are some 
of them: The simple change of seed from one locality 
to another generally gives a larger and better product, 
or even more marked variations. It will readily be 
seen that the procuring of seeds and roots from several 
widely separated localities is likely to induce changes, 
sports (mutations botanically speaking), particularly 
when cross-fertilizing is employed. "If a plant is once 





Cerise King 



OF THE DAHLIA 45 

strongly modified in size, shape, color, other attributes 
are forthcoming." And immortal Darwin himself 
said: "Of all the causes which induce variations, 
excess of food, whether or not changed in nature, is 
probably the most powerful." 

A grower in the eastern States has a dahlia with 
habits of blooming similar to the well known double 
daffodil, with outer rows of petals pure white, the 
center filled with pale yellow quilled petals. 

The Cactus dahlia originated as a sport, or mu- 
tation, and was first presented to the public by the 
Royal Horticultural Society, in 1 876. In 1 872 M. J. T 
Van der Berg, of Juxphaar, Holland, received a box from 
a friend in Mexico containing various kinds of bulbs, 
flower-roots, and seeds. The slow transportation of 
those days had allowed much of the contents to spoil. 
From one small and fortunately undecayed tuber a 
dahlia came into flower, bright red, attracting much 
attention. It was called a cactus dahlia in England 
because the bloom seemed a good deal like the flower of 
a variety of cactus. 

The peony type of dahlia came from crossing single 
and cactus varieties, and was introduced into England 
in 1900. The collarette originated from two sports in 
1 899 simultaneously on different plants in the municipal 
gardens of the Pare de la Tete d'Or, Lyons. These 
sports were fixed and propagated, to delight flower 
lovers ever since. 



46 PROPAGATION 

A tall grass known as teosinte, also called Guate- 
mala grass, has long been regarded as the ancestor, in 
far off centuries or milleniums, of one of the most 
valuable plants known to the world, maize — corn. 
Eighteen years ago Luther Burbank took this grass and 
tried to prove, by breeding, what botanists had only 
theoretical reasons for believing. He recently succeeded 
in producing an ear of corn on his teosinte, which he had 
improved and bred upwards by rejecting the inferior, 
and propagating the superior specimens of successive 
generations. His success is one of the most amazing 
results of his many wonderful breeding achievements, 
and is full of encouragement. 

The important and very profitable "Lucretia" 
dewberry was found growing wild on a plantation in 
West Virginia. Without a doubt others equally fine 
are growing wild, waiting for some observant eye to 
note and appropriate them. The dwarf lima bean 
known as Henderson's was found growing along a road- 
side in Virginia by a negro about 1865. Burpee's 
Bush lima bean was found by Asa Palmer, Kennett 
Square, Pa., in 1 883. His entire field of large white 
pole limas had been destroyed by cut- worms. In 
removing the poles from the stricken field he found one 
little plant, ten inches high. It bore three pods, each 
containing one bean. The three beans were planted in 
1 884, and two of the plants were dwarf like the parent. 
In succeeding seasons all plants having a tendency to 



OF THE DAHLIA 47 

climb were discarded, and the Burpee Bush Lima was 
given the world. Kohl-rabi, a table vegetable, is the 
product of the crossing of the cabbage and the turnip. 
The exquisitely lovely Shirley poppy is an en- 
couraging example of the happy results following the 
accidental discovery of a mutation. This poppy was 
given the world by Rev. Mr. Wilks, Vicar of Shirley, 
England. He says: "There is no country under the 
sun (except perhaps Patagonia and Thibet) to which I 
have not sent seeds gratuitously. In 1 880 I noticed, in 
a waste corner of my garden a patch of the common 
wild field poppy, one solitary flower of which had a very 
narrow edge of white. This one flower I marked and 
saved the seed of it alone. Next year out of perhaps 
two hundred plants I had four or five on which all the 
flowers were edged. The best of these were marked 
and the seed saved, and so for several years, the flowers 
all the while getting a larger infusion of white to tone 
down the red until they arrived at quite pale pink, and 
one plant absolutely pure white. I then set myself to 
change the black central portions of the flowers from 
black to yellow or white and at last fixed a strain with 
petals varying in color from the brightest scarlet to pure 
white with all shades of pink between and all varieties 
of flakes and dged flowers. The Shirley Poppies have 
thus been obtained simply by selection and elimination. 
By 'selection* I mean the saving seed only from se- 
lected flowers and by 'elimination' the instant and 



48 PROPAGATION 

total eradication of any plant that bears inferior flowers. 
It is rather interesting to reflect that the gardens of the 
whole world — rich man's and poor man's alike — are 
today furnished with poppies which are the direct de- 
scendants of a single capsule of seed raised in the garden 
of Shirley Vicarage as lately as August, 1880." 

The beautiful purple beech, one of the most stately 
and desired of lawn trees, sported suddenly, and without 
any previous suggestion of the change, in two places 
simultaneously, in Europe. The exquisite double- 
flowering Bechtel's crab was introduced by a nursery- 
man near Staunton, 111., about 1888, after it had 
been wasting its sweetness of perfume and beauty of 
profuse two-inch flowers in a single-flowering wild crab 
thicket for forty years, according to old settlers. 
Another case of a sudden mutation. Peter M. Gideon 
sowed over a bushel of apple seed, and one seed pro- 
duced the famous Wealthy apple. He first planted a 
bushel of apple seeds, and each year thereafter he planted 
additional seeds for a thousand trees. He lived in Minne- 
sota and at the end of ten years all his seedlings had 
perished, except one hard seedling crab. Then a small 
packet of seeds of apples and crab apples was secured 
from Maine. There were only about fifty seeds in the 
packet of crab apple seed, but one of these seeds pro- 
duced the Wealthy apple. In 1915 on the white 
gladiolus named "Bride" a single stem bore a flower 
part red, part white. It is certainly known that this 



OF THE DAHLIA 49 

parti-colored flower was the offspring of a pure white 
one, that had been such for generations. The little 
bulblet-like offshoots of the corm of this variegated 
flowering stalk were planted, and one flower stalk of 
these offsprings bore red and white flowers, while 
another plant bore red flowers. It follows that the 
original corm (bulb-like root) must have had some 
tissue cells in its composition capable of producing red 
pigment in the flowers. That the vegetable cells 
having this altered chemical constitution comprised 
about half of the corm is indicated by the position of the 
red and white flowers on the stalk. The first double 
petunia is known to have suddenly and accidentally 
arisen from ordinary seed in a private garden in Lyons, 
France, about 1855. From this one plant all double 
petunias of whatever variety have descended, partly 
by natural, partly by artificial cross-breeding. In the 
last thirty-five years the length of canna flowers has 
been doubled, and the breadth multiplied three times, 
so that this strikingly handsome flower resembles the 
best types of lilies and amaryllis. 

Experiments with chemicals introduced into the 
soil might have interesting, and even valuable results, 
for botanists regard some color changes as caused by 
the presence of different chemicals in the soil. In New 
England the meadow-lily is yellow; in the Middle 
States it is red. Several flowers in the Swiss alps change 
their color with location. A bellwort produced white 



50 PROPAGATION 

flowers in one soil, blue flowers in a distant soil. 
Hydrangea Hortensis produces only here and there 
beautiful and much desired lavender-blue flowers. The 
writer once saw a thirty foot row of these plants, with 
deep shades of this color. But no landscape gardener 
can contract to produce this color, saying go to, now, I 
will place this color for you in your garden this year. 
It is popularly believed that the addition of a little 
alum to the soil will produce the color, if anything will. 
A vetch found in the Tyrol was yellow; the same species 
in Hungary was violet. In the central Alps the ane- 
mone is sulphur yellow, in the eastern Alps it is white, 

A botanist, experimenting with the color changes 
in flowers, was able to turn yellow, blue, pink and red 
flowers to green by adding alkali, and turned them back 
to their original colors by acids. From his experiments 
he concludes that flowers have but three pigments, red, 
yellow, and blue, and that from these by various com- 
binations all the other colors are produced. 

In purple, violet, and blue fruits and flowers the 
color is diffused through the cell-sap. White flowers 
are white for the same reason that snow is — light is 
reflected from a multitude of tiny surfaces. In the 
flower these surfaces are the walls of empty cells. When 
the petals of such flowers become water soaked they 
lose the power to reflect light, and become almost 
transparent. 



OF THE DAHLIA 51 

Many are the disappointments of the would-be 
breeder of new varieties. This is inevitable, but 
incidental. The rewards are joyous, sometimes profit- 
able. Changes of soil, climate, fertilizers, methods of 
growing, promote changes of plant habit and growth, 
changes of color, form, profusion or scantiness of 
flowering. 

Hybridizers distinguish between changes that 
constitute varieties and the profound, constitutional 
modification that results in a "break." Seeds sown in 
the spring produce new varieties of blooms by autumn* 
Twenty-five or fifty years are required to secure a 
"break" that is of importance. If the production of a 
"break" is desired the hybridizer's ambition must 
first lead him to Mexico. He cannot use any of the 
gorgeous hybrid dahlias offered in the catalogs to 
secure a "break." It cannot be brought about that 
way. He must employ one or more of the eight wild 
varieties to be found in Mexico today. 

Plant breeding involves endless, minutest study, 
and the discovery of valuable facts by accidental ob- 
servation. A writer in The Garden Magazine says of 
the creator of new dahlias: "He must needs see the 
blooms under artificial light, for many listless colors 
under daylight are gems under artificial light. As far 
as variety of color is concerned the dahlia is in a class by 
itself; future progress must be along lines than color; 
the greatest improvement during the past year has been 



52 PROPAGATION 

among the whites and reds; with few exceptions the 
California producers are making that State the cradle 
of the best American productions." 

Will there ever be a blue dahlia? The breeder of 
a beautiful blue in this wondrous flower would make his 
everlasting fame and fortune. At least one nationally 
known dahlia grower has been trying it upon a con- 
siderable scale and has reported "encouragement." 
Other equally competent experts doubt the presence in 
the dahlia of the requisite constitutional ability to 
produce the color pigment so desired. If this greatly 
to be desired result is ever achieved perhaps it may 
come through the employment of chemicals in the soil 
to modify cell-growth and cell action in the plant. 

It must be remembered that in all the floral world 
there is no such thing as a pure green, or a pure blue. 
There is no blue-green, or green-blue in flowers cor- 
responding to these exquisite tints in the plumage of 
birds. At least one competent scientific botanist 
discourages the hope of ever producing a blue dahlia. 
Augustin de Gandolle, (born Geneva, 1778), divided 
flower colors, according to F. Schuyler Mathews, into 
two classes, which he named zanthic (red, scarlet, 
orange, gold-orange, yellow, and green-yellow); and 
cyanic (green-blue, blue, ultramine-violet, violet, purple, 
and red). He insisted that the flowers of the xanthic 
series could pass into red or white but never blue, and 
those of the blue (cyanic) series could pass into red or 



O F T H E D A H L I A 53 

white but never into yellow. This theory has been 
accepted as correct. Both modification and revision, 
however are possible. 

Hyacinths belong to Candolle's cyanic group, but 
there are no blue flowers, although there are purple, 
violet, cyanic red, and modified yellow. Dahlias are 
scarlet, red, crimson-red, and even pure yellow, but 
never pure gold-orange, or orange. They belong to 
Gandolle's xanthic classification of plants that can- 
not produce blue flowers because of some chemical- 
constitutional deficiencies. Mathews says "At some 
time or other in the distant past the law of limitations 
fixed the range of flower-color. No new law of elas- 
ticity has since developed to remove the boundaries and 
thus aid the floriculturist in his ambition to produce 
what would prove to be a mere novelty." 

The dahlia of the future may be one of the sugar 
sources of the world. It has long been known that the 
tubers contained a starch-like substance known as inu- 
lin, also called dahlin and alantin. It is a white powder, 
spontaneously deposited when the roots are treated 
with water. It is soluble in hot water, is colored yellow by 
iodine, and its chemical properties appear to be inter- 
mediate between those of sugar and starch. Chemists 
have succeeded in extracting from this substance a re- 
markable sugar called fructose or levulose, which is 
sixty per cent sweeter than cane suger. Dr. R. F. 
Jackson, of the United States Bureau of Standards 



54 PROPAGATION 

has been experimenting to ascertain the best methods 
for manufacturing this sugar. Mr. R. Vincent, Jr., a 
famous dahlia grower, and president of The American 
Dahlia Society, and head of the large greenhouse and 
nursery business of Richard Vincent, Jr., and Sons Go., 
White Marsh, Md., has for several years been sending 
some tons of dahlia roots to an Industrial School, 
Schenectady, N. Y., and to the chemists in Washington. 
Extensive experiments have been carried on in both 
places. A corporation is financially interested, patents 
are being sought, and when obtained machinery will be 
built to handle the tuber production from five thousand 
(5000) acres. Of course, the bud end of the tubers can be 
used for propagation, and cut flowers can be also sold 
from the plants. This dahlia sugar can be used by 
persons suffering from diabetes. At present such 
sufferers must use saccharin or go without "sweetening." 
But saccharin, although intensely sweet has a bitter 
taste, and is unpleasant rather than agreeable. If the 
new dahlia sugar proves exceedingly palatable, besides 
being harmless to the human body, it will be one of the 
great discoveries of the time, and the commercial 
possibilities of the dahlia will be vastly extended. 

Varieties of dahlias are being tested for the sugar 
content of their tubers, as it is assumed that, as with 
sugar beets, some varieties contain more sugar than 
others. As far as the experiments have progressed this 
variation in sugar value has been found. 



0> THEDAHLIA 55 

What will the dahlia of the future be? Breeders 
ambitious for new varieties should lay to heart Elbert 
Hubbard's saying "Convince Nature that a thing is 
needed and she will produce it." The dahlia of the 
future will not need stakes, and it may prove to be a 
tree-like form, perfectly hardy, remaining in the ground 
the year round, even in northern America. It may have 
beautifully variegated foliage. Dahlia foliage at the 
present time has about six times as much variety as that 
of chrysanthemums. White-edged dahlia foliage, sim- 
ilar to that of variegated geraniums, abutilons, funkias 
and euonymus, has more than once made its appearance, 
but is evidently unstable and difficult to fix. Variegated 
varieties would be desirable to mix with those of plainer 
foliage. The future dahlia will have strong, long stems, 
holding the splendid flowers high above the foliage. It 
is the queen of the autumn now, but it is going to have 
a longer blooming season. It is a commonplace of talk 
that the dahlia is one of the most variable of plants, but 
we hardly realize how variable this marvel of the floral 
world really is. When dahlias were first grown as 
garden ornaments they only bloomed for a period of 
about ten days before frost. Now it is the easiest thing 
in the world in regions where potatoes can be planted 
April 10 to have dahlias in bloom June 25, and early 
flowering sorts will bloom June 15, and can be kept 
blooming throughout the season. The dahlia of today 



is the largest, most brilliant, most gorgeous flower of the 
temperate zone. The dahlia of the future may be the 
largest and most gorgeous flower of any zone. 

"I often think" (Pages From a Garden Note- 
Book), "in looking at our industrial cities and their 
people, of that old figure of the warp and woof of life; 
and if these people, many of them so weary, so worn- 
looking, make up the warp of town life of our country, 
it is the sculptors, the poets, architects, and designers 
who brighten the fabric with threads of silver and of 
gold; it is the painters, the musicians, the planners of 
gardens, the growers and hybridizers of flowers who 
draw through that warp their threads of form and color. 
I thought of what those growers and hybridizers are 
doing for the joy of their country. The lovely wares 
they deal in, the experiments with which they are con- 
stantly busy; are there any others besides painters, 
composers, poets, sculptors, who can give to Americans 
what these are giving? We need flowers. Every man, 
woman, and child of us is hungry for flowers. No man 
can grow or even sell flowers successfully unless he 
values them more than money. But it is the hybridizer, 
the man or woman of gentleness and patience, of in- 
telligence, perception, and deep love of the art, that 
brings into this tapestry of life a lovely curious pattern 
through their own threads of color, a freshness of 
design only to be wrought by the creative mind." 



